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01
WHAT IS IT AND HOW DOES IT WORK?
Dick Baxter & Jim Britton
The two dissimilar metals may be totally different alloys, such as steel and aluminum, but are
more usually microscopic or macroscopic metallurgical differences on the surface of a single
piece of steel.
If the above conditions exist, at the more active metal surface (in this case we will consider freely
corroding steel which is non uniform), the following reaction takes place at the more active sites:
The free electrons travel through the metal path to the less active sites where the following
reaction takes place:
Recombinations of these ions at the active surface produce the following reaction, which yields
the iron corrosion product ferrous hydroxide.
This reaction is more commonly explained as current flow through the water from the anode
(more active site) to the cathode (less active site).
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As long as the current (free electrons) is arriving at the cathode (steel) faster than oxygen is
arriving, no corrosion occurs.
Sea Water
Aluminum Anode
3O2 + 6H2O
12OH-
Anode Connection
4Al+++
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I=E/R
Where:
I= Current flow in amps
E= Difference in potential between the anode and cathode in volts
R= Total circuit resistance in ohms
Initially current will be high because the difference in potential between the anode and cathode
are high, but as the potential difference decreases due to the effect of the current flow onto the
cathode, current gradually decreases due to the polarization of the cathode.
The circuit resistance includes both the water path and the metal path, including any cable in the
circuit. The dominant value here is the resistance of the anode to the seawater.
For most applications the metal resistance is so small compared to the water resistance that it
can be ignored. (Not true for sleds, or long pipelines protected from both ends).
In general, long thin anodes have lower resistance than short fat anodes. They will discharge
more current, but will not last as long.
Therefore a cathodic protection designer must size the anodes so that they have the right shape
and surface area to discharge enough current to protect the structure and enough weight to last
the desired lifetime when discharging this current.
As a general rule of thumb:
Length of the anode determines how much current the anode can produce, and consequently
how many square feet of steel can be protected.
Cross Section (Weight) determines how long the anode can sustain this level of protection.
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DC Power Supply
Insulated Anode
Cable
4e-
4Cl-
Sea Water
Negative Return
Cable (Structure
Connection)
2Cl2
O2 + 2H2O
4OH-
Impressed
Current Anode
Protected
Structure
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-0.600
-0.950
Ag/AgCl sw.
Reference
Electrode
Aluminum
Anode
Protected
Structure
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